Rowing into oblivion

I recall a heralding experience I had as a teenager near my family's summer place, that renewed my faith in something beyond me. I invited my cousin Meg out for a row in the yellow dingy.  In a late afternoon, we casually ventured out into the harbor and admired the scenery.  As the wind came up, white caps formed on waves.  I reassured my cousin and said I'd row us around the local penninsula. Little did I know a storm would suddenly arise and threaten to carry us out to sea... 

Before long, fog rolled in and my passenger became petrified.  She lost any faith she had had in my navigational ability.  This contrasted my sense of excitement and adventure about our crazy situation.  I reminisced aloud of heros from some of my favorite books.  Yet, even my humorous tone turned serious when one oar fell out into the water and floated away from us.  Needless to say, the state of my passenger helped rock the boat. As she began to panic, I made efforts to calm her. Not long after, a powerful force pushed the oar back in our direction, and I grabbed it.  That went completely against the current. 

At that point, we saw the penninsula through the mist.  Considering how far we'd come, I agreed it would be wise to go ashore and walk the boat around the tip of the penninsula with the bow line. Meg might've abandoned me then, but as it happened, she couldn't climb a wet, rocky cliff.

Our feet slipped on the eroded stones on shore. The water felt refreshing on our feet.  Meg walked ahead of me and expressed aloud she wished the 'whole ordeal' was over.  When the drenched bow line slipped from my fingers in the fog, I could've sworn a man appeared long enough to help me grab it. Yet, looking up, the cliff left him nowhere to go.  Perplexed yet, grateful, I invited my passenger back into the bow and continued rowing.  She opted not to row at all. As I worked, I encouraged her to keep her spirits up. She didn't laugh though I offered her reasons. With the weather, pea soup fog and now intermittent rain, we both looked like drowned rats. 

Even in light of everything, I kept chatting and managed to enjoy myself. It wasn't long before we could see a person on a cottage deck in the distance. He waved. I smiled and kept rowing. I thought he waved at the gulls just overhead. I didn't feel we needed rescuing. As I rowed against the wind, the fog gradually cleared.  Although I shivered with no raincoat, I was glad to build stamina, resilience and determination.  I liked thinking of the story we'd share on our return.

In the end, our plan for a quick rowing trip took us three hours. My cousin admits she had no idea what she was getting into. As it happens, she hasn't accompanied me on another rowing trip since. Such memories cause me to bear in mind that experiences in our best interests may be things we never thought about. Who would voluntarily row in a storm? That boat experience prompted me to develop survival skills and keep my mind open to possibilities and alternatives. As crises evolve, I learn how faith sees me through. I convince myself I may not control the elements, but I do determine how I react to them, what I choose to attract, see and gain.

Cement sent from heaven

The following is a true story which helps you learn why this man takes angels seriously.

When I was 23, I was sailing in the Caribbean, off the coast of Cuba, and my small boat capsized.  A friend and I had taken it from the Havana Yacht Club and foolishly sailed out too far, without having the sense to wear life jackets.  Sail and rudder were gone.  With great effort, we hauled ourselves inside and sat there, water up to our waits, helpless.  A burst of wind came up, and the next thing we knew, we were clinging to the gunnels of the submerged boat.  It was too far to swim ashore and the waters were full of sharks. We drifted in a swift current, southwestwardly, along the coast.  Before long, it was pitch dark.  I was shaking inside with fear, not knowing how we would ever be found in the darkness, not being sure how long the boat would remain afloat.  I prayed more persistently than ever. I promised God if that he saved us, I would serve him well.

I don't know how much time had gone by when my companion screamed in pain.  A Portugese man-o-war had brushed across his belly, its poison leaving a wake of angry welts.  He kept taking about jumping overboard and, I recall my attention was diverted from my own desperation to talking to him about anything I could think of to distract him from his anguish.  But, I felt it was hopeless.  In the morning, if we lasted that long, the sun would emerge and burn us to a crisp.

Miraculously, morning came and the sun was not as threatening as I'd imagined.  We were at least a mile from shore, and still afloat.  Much to my surprise, I saw a large ship approaching and became excited.  The ship had seen us.  As the ship grew closer, I could read the large letters painted on the side: Lehigh Portland Cement.  The sailors threw the ladder down and one kind man helped us on deck.  We drank coffee and the ship turned back to harbor.  I said a prayer of thanks, reminding myself of my promises and determined to do my best to remain faithful to them.

For years I remained convinced my prayers had been heard by God.  And recently, I began to wonder whether God had sent an angel to send us safely home.

-Frederic Flach, MD, based on an excerpt from The Secret Strength of Angels 

Endings are really beginnings

Early in The Five People You Meet in Heaven, author Mitch Albom says that "all endings are also beginnings." His protagonist Eddie goes about the last 30 minutes of his life on Earth as a routine.

He is an old, wounded war veteran, who feels he had led an uninspired life. His chosen job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is a place where your life is explained to you by five people, some of whom you knew, others who may have been strangers. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people identify Earthly connections to him.  They give him reason to rethink his ideas of a  "meaningless" life, and shed new light on timeless question: "Why was I here?"

The five life lessons clarified for Eddy by angels are:

1- There are no random acts. Strangers are like family you have yet to know.

2- Sacrificing precious things, doesn't mean you lose them. You pass them on to someone else.

3- When we're angry, we hurt ourselves more than other people. Learn to forgive.

4- Life has to end, but love doesn't.

5- Your good deeds can help make up for what has been done before you.

How do you feel about these lessons? What kinds of life experiences have influenced your views? Explain how you understand connections among people you meet and your life experiences.

Almost, but not quite

How do we know guardian angels exist? Are they messengers of Higher Forces? Something beyond us seems to guide us to good thoughts and words, and to help preserve us from danger or suffering. 

A divorced mom I know now shared how she had struggled to raise her young son and wondered more than once how she would survive.   Try as she did to take on on odd jobs to support them both, the bills kept piling up.   When her ex-husband refused to pay support, and she had no friends or relatives to help, she ran into greater difficulties.  She spent all her money to feed her son and drank only milk herself.  As the result, she lost a lot of weight and became very weak. The time came when she hadn't paid rent in three months.  She feared she and her son would be evicted.  Her health became precarious and she finally arrived at her wits end. She made every sacrifice she could, though she says that her now adult son doesn't realize her sacrifices. 

Without apparent rhyme or reason, she asked for help aloud and thought nobody heard.  Soon afterwards, her landlord and people around her did a complete change of heart.  The landlord told her she didn't deserve the way she had been treated, and he'd erase her debt and start her bill from that moment. After everyone seemed to have turned their backs to her, she felt this landlord was a saviour. Then, she met a stranger who oriented her to a more stable job opportunity. The divorced mom became as an adminstrative assistant and filer in a radiology department. From that period in her life, things looked up.  She was offered other jobs that enabled her to make ends meat, pay her son's private school, and manage to keep her head above water. Looking back , she admits that she almost lost her bearings, but not quite. 

No matter how great your distress, how prolonged your solitude, how you almost lose faith, you'll always have access to Forces beyond you that are able to help you, as if from nowhere.  Take responsibility for your actions and realize your intentions, reasons and drive, all help you to progress in unexpected ways.

Deja-vu on a bicycle

A friend shared a miraculous story with me that involves her family twice spared from tragedies with children over a period of months.  She believes that a guardian angel twice saved the day.

In the first case, when she was an infant, her mother strapped her into her carseat and placed her brother beside her with a bag of lollies. The mother got into her car, started it and headed off down the road.  Much to the woman's surprise, the back door of her car flew open on the side where her son sat.  As he hadn't been wearing his seatbelt, he fell out onto the road and screamed on impact. The mother screached the car to a halt, jumped out, and ran to her son.  All he could scream was, "I want my lollies!" He didn't notice the bloody cuts.  At that moment, a kind woman arrived on her bicycle. She turned out to be a nurse and knew exactly what to do.  Then, the nurse rode way as quickly as she had appeared.  After that incident, the mother didn't try to find this nurse. She felt the nurse had been in the right place and was silently grateful.

Months later, the same woman and the same car had another close call. This time, her infant  niece locked herself into the car and struck a match. The chold lit herself on fire which led to third degree burns.  The aunt (owner of the car) smashed the back window and reached in to save the girl, and at the same time, got third degree burns herself.  Just then, the same nurse rode over the hill on that familiar bicycle the woman river remembered from the incident with her son.  Again, the nurse conveniently offered very specific health advice about how to deal with the burns.  Then, the nurse rode off again.  This time, the child's aunt tried to find the nurse to thank her, but never found her. To this day, the family believes in guardian angels.